In recent years, along with the progress in fine circuit patterns in the process for producing semiconductor integrated circuits, a photoresist material having high resolution and high sensitivity is desired. As the circuit patterns become fine, a short wavelength of a light source for an exposure apparatus becomes essential. In an application to lithography employing an excimer laser of 250 nm or shorter, a polyvinyl phenol type resin, an alicyclic acrylic type resin or a polynorbornane type resin has, for example, been proposed, but no adequate resolution and sensitivity have been obtained.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a resist composition which is particularly excellent in transparency to light beams having wavelengths of at most 200 nm and dry etching properties, as a chemical amplification type resist and which gives a resist pattern excellent in sensitivity, resolution, evenness, heat resistance, etc.